News

Liverpool turns on the red light

LIVERPOOL, home of the Beatles and designated as Europe’s capital of culture for 2008, will this week seek a new accolade. It will take steps to become another Amsterdam by applying to the Home Office to open Britain’s first officially recognised red light area.

The Liberal Democrat- controlled city council wants a “managed” vice district where healthcare workers will try to wean prostitutes off drugs.

It has set aside five possible sites, all car parks or streets on industrial estates, where sex will be for sale between 8pm and 2am. A squad of cleaners will then move in to mop up the area before factory workers clock on for their day shift.

Charles Clarke, the home secretary, would have to introduce changes in the law, which prohibits street prostitution, before approving a pilot scheme. But the government has acknowledged the possible merits of formalised red light areas. Its white paper,